Job Search

Thousands of federal government jobs are advertised on any given
day. With 50 percent of the federal work force eligible for either
early or regular retirement, and additional hiring for new health
care and banking regulatory jobs, there are abundant federal job opportunities.
Jobs are available nationwide and overseas.

This site provides links to
federal jobs by occupation,
agency, and we include related state and local government, and
private sector jobs to provide the largest selection of job
opportunities available for your area.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) maintains the
largest federal jobs data base. Many of their vacancies are included in
our consolidated job listings.

Why is it that some who
land jobs with Uncle Sam have half the experience, education, and
special qualifications that you have — and you’re still looking? Many
who approach the federal sector lose out because they didn’t take the
time to understand the federal hiring process. Others get frustrated by
the required paperwork and give up prematurely. Decades later they will
regret their impatience and wish they had done what it takes to land a
high-paying and benefit-loaded government job. Use the resources on this
site to fast track you through the process from comprehensive federal job listings, how to prepare a
comprehensive federal resume, prepare for
interviews and everything in
between.

If you take the time to understand the
differences between the private and public sectors, thoroughly complete your
application package, and seek out all available job vacancies, your chances
for employment will increase substantially. Start by exploring
federal jobs listings
on this site.

It pays to start your employment search early for federal
jobs. Applications can take weeks to process and rate. It can take even
longer if written civil service test is required.
From the time you first identify an opening to actual interviews and hiring
can take months in some cases even under recent hiring reform
initiatives. All individuals interested in federal employment should start
researching the system, identifying jobs, visiting agency Web sites, and
preparing for tests — if required — months in advance.

Too many job seekers pin all their hopes on one effort. They find a job
announcement, send in an application, then forget about the process
until they receive a reply. Federal jobs are highly competitive and the
more jobs you apply for the better your chances. Content, proper
spelling, and grammar counts when submitting your online application
and/or federal style resume. In most cases you will complete your
application using an online resume builder.
The standard private sector resume isn't sufficient to apply for most
jobs, it lacks the detail necessary to be properly rated. You can
write your resume/application independently with the
proper resources and knowledge or you can use a
professional federal resume writing service.

I participated in many selection panels during my 35 years of
government service and was a certified rating official for the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA). I also coordinated and/or conducted hundreds of job
interviews for our organization. The first impression that a rating official has
of a new applicant is reflected by his or her application package. I can tell
you that thousands of applications that I reviewed during my career were poorly
done and didn't make it through the initial review. Today, most applications are
completed online and you can spell and grammar check your work before copying
and pasting your work experiences into the online resume builders. Content is
the key and you must tailor your application to the
job announcement. If you
don't take time to compose a professional application you won't be rated high enough to be
considered for an interview.

Take the time necessary to draft a coherent, clear,
error free, and concise federal style resume as outlined in our
federal resume section. With today’s word processors and spell
check functions there isn’t any reason to send in an application with misspelled
words, and the word processor grammar check functions are also very helpful. If
you don’t have the inclination or time to do it right, hire
a service to assist you with your federal style resume. Notice that I say,
assist you with your federal style résumé; it takes a lot of time and work for
both the résumé service and client to complete a federal style résumé that will
get results. So even if you hire a service to complete yours, understand that
you will have to provide considerable input and devote time to reviewing drafts
to get it right. Only those rated "Best Qualified"
will be referred for interviews and eventually selected for a job.

Identify local agency offices and conduct
informational interviews and send them a copy of your
federal resume along with a short cover letter. In
the letter thank them for the interview and let them know what jobs you are
interested in. This is a good way to introduce yourself and your
qualifications to a perspective employer. The more contacts you make the
better. This is especially important if you qualify for a special hiring
programs such as the Veterans Recruitment Appointment (VRA) or disability
programs.

You will find that you may qualify for many different
federal jobs. Don’t overlook Wage Grade (WG) positions. When searching for
vacancies online, review job announcements for all the job series that
interest you and that you have the education and/or training to apply for.
You will be surprised by how many you find. The Book of U.S. Government Jobs lists
all GS and WG occupations in Appendix C, over 900 total that you can review
for related occupations that may offer additional opportunities for you to
bid on jobs with your education and skill sets. You can also review our
online Occupation Listings or view
our Agency Job Listings by occupational title as
well.

The Book of U.S. Government Jobs describes
the federal employment process with easy to use checklists
and
sample applications with over 1,000 references. Recommended by LIBRARY JOURNAL.

Consider the electronics technician field. For example,
all of the following job series require basic electronic technician skills:

Additional avenues are available to locate government job
announcements including; OPM and agency sponsored job hot lines, internet web
sites, computer generated data bases, employment services, directories, and
periodicals that publish job listings. These resources are listed in Chapter
Three of
The Book of U.S. Government Jobs under Common Job Sources. Specific hiring
programs are discussed following the job resource listings such as; student hiring, and engineering conversion paths.

Individual agency personnel offices should also be contacted to obtain job
announcements. A listing is included in Appendix C of The Book of U.S.
Government Jobs and a
partial list is
included on this page. A
consolidated listing of Washington, D.C. Federal Personnel Departments is
provided following the Common Job Sources section in this book as well. If an
agency has direct hire or case examining authority, and most do today, they may
advertise jobs independently from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Agencies recruit through government
web sites including OPM's
USAJOBS. Many eliminated their direct general employment support lines. However,
the majority of job announcements provide contact information including the
staffing specialist's names, phone number and email address on the announcement
if you have specific questions about advertised jobs. You can contact these
staffing specialists to ask general questions about employment in their agency.
You can also call the main Washington DC number that is listed in the agency
directory in The Book of U.S. Government Jobs
and ask to speak with their recruiting office.